gah....

We've been quite delinquent in posting here on the blog - we can blame the fervor of the new year after our road trip, the 14th National Championship win, the start of the new semester, celebrating Vietnamese New Year (Year of the Dragon!), and life in general, but alas, it doesn't change the fact that we've been remiss in posting on the blog.

A few things - 

1) Yes, we are National football champs in the college realm - it was great to beat LSU the second time around, but probably a pretty boring game for most folks...

2) Dan has started the semester - his course work is much lighter, which affords him more lab time looking at inverts and mounting slides of chironomid larvae...he can elaborate if need be.

3) Tet, the Vietnamese New Year started last Monday - we celebrated by having chicken curry and calling my folks.  Down here in the south there isn't the bustling asian population that provides various parades and Dragon Dances complete with fireworks, so we settled for an asian dinner and talking to asians on the phone.

4) We've been to the Greensboro Ave location a few times - once even with Anthony when he visited over the summer.  But this is the first (successful) visit to the original location. Here are pictures of Archibald's BBQ in Northport via urban spoon.  It really is just a single room building in the back of someone's house.  The pork was AMAZING...for me, second to Saw's in Homewood which I went to with Anthony when he visited in the summer...for Dan....a big thumbs up.

5) This past week was a bit tumultuous in the fact that a dear friend will be leaving us in the South - Vija has decided to leave the program in search of a graduate program more in line with her career goals.  We are sad to see her go, but are content knowing that she is following her desire of a more conservation-orientated program.  We have a few weeks left with Vija before she leaves so let's hope we can make those count.

6) Dan and I and a few lab mates will be taking a sport climbing class on Thursday!  We drive to Sand Rock near Gadsden, AL for a day of learning how to lead climb - it should be fun!  Then, on Saturday, the T-Town pull down is held at the climbing wall on campus, a bouldering competition with swag and fun - Dan and I are competing and hoping it'll be great fun,  we'll keep you updated on how we make out at the comp!!

7) pictures

xo all!

the new do...

eeps!

a few videos...

A few videos from the trip..

hannah at white sands...

1

2

3

Dan at White Sands and his raving leash abilities

We're Baaaaaaaaaa-ack!

Hi!

So if you haven't heard, we made it back home safe and sound.  We got in late on Friday and had a wonderful sleep in our own bed.  Hannah's getting back to her 18 hour sleep regiment along with actually eating twice a day.

The rest of the trip was so very fun - 

After staying the night at a cheap but very nice Super 8 in Fredricksburg, Tx we headed toward Austin in the morning.  We had 80 miles of hill country to get through before Austin, but spotted an eclectic coffee shop on the highway in Johnson City.  Turns out Johnson City is the birthplace of our 36th president, Lyndon B. Johnson (They changed the town name after he became president).  We got tasty lattes/coffees and perused the random iron art that I greatly coveted - sadly we had no room in the car for any such garden mascots.

Bu alas, we drove around the tiny town of Johnson City and spotted the Pecan Street Brewery.  It was close enough to lunch time that a stop to taste some beers and down a sammy seemed just about right.  Their beers were absolutely fantastic and hit the spot with ever so clever names...(Catcher in the Wheat was my favorite), Their location was right next to an ancient looking jail house, which the bartender informed us had been in use up until this past summer!!!  Holy crap!

We slogged through to Austin finally where our first stop was Franklin BBQ- a joint that started off in a food truck, but recently moved into a brick-and-mortar storefront.  Anthony helped us scope it out via yelp since we are only equipped with dumb phones and boy are we glad he found it!  We waited in a super long line but were rewarded with an amazing sandwich called the Tipsy Texan - chopped beef brisket, slices of sausage, pickles, onion, and coleslaw - SO GOOD.  The place was started about two or three years ago and totally rocks Texas BBQ.  They open for lunch only from 11-"when they sell out".  In fact, someone went through the line to see what we would be ordering to make sure they had enough food for those salivating in line.  After us there were about 10 additional lucky diners who got in line right before they put up the "Sold Out" sign on the door - whew!  The guy who owns it (Aaron Franklin) also cuts the meat - he asks you what you want, slices it right in front of you, chats you up (he's quite nice) and passes the plate along to his wife who rings you up.  Also, I was surprised how young they were...not your typical BBQ joint owners...So very adorable and delicious!

After the BBQ feast we toured the capitol building - purported to be the biggest in US and, as they do it Texas, it was pretty big.  We saw the House of Representatives and Senate chambers which was kinda cool (p.s. I think this means Dan and I are of a certain age when we find Capitol Buildings cool).  Afterwards we went climbing at South Austin Rock Gym.  It was pretty large and had a fun cave that just never ended.  Also there was a group of kids doing a "rock climbing camp" of sorts - they totally kicked butt!!  It was amazing to see them flash problems that I could never complete.  They had so much energy and were so flexible and had no fear!!  It was pretty hilarious to see how crazy good they were at their age, only to know that if they kept at it they would be pros before turning 18.

After working an appetite, we headed to downtown Austin to check out 6th street, which is littered with bars featuring live music.  After a margarita (Texas and Tequilas go hand in hand) and a crab cake appetizer at the Iron Cactus we decided it wasn't quite our scene (but at least the IC has a rooftop bar and it was in the 70s) and headed to SoCo - which is short for South Congress, a neighborhood south of downtown/Lady Bird Lake.  It happened to be First Thursday when the art galleries and most shops stay open late with live music and the community just stays out to have fun.  That was super cool to see - food trucks open late serving all sorts of goodies, Dan and I went to Fat Cactus which served up navajo tacos.  Which is like a regular taco, only served on Indian fry bread.  They fried the dough to order, then topped it with the special of the day - braised pork with simmered greens and black eyed pea salsa - SO GOOD!!  We also had a few drinks at hopdoddy - amazing Sangrita and Double Fina Margaritas!!  And then called it a night at La Quinta Inn.

The next morning we stopped at the Magnolia Cafe for a late breakfast/early lunch before making the 700+ mile trip home - it was super tasty, Dan got portabello mushroom fajitas and I got the Sonoran Tacos.   The Cafe is featured in Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives but we didn't taste any of the items featured because we didn't see the clip until just now!

All in all, a wonderful trip filled with fun, amazing sights, tasty food and drinks, and some great memories caught on camera...

Here are some pics!

xo, time to get back to it tomorrow, it was a lovely vacation while it lasted!!

Hellos again from the road!

Hi there to all! 

I'm typing while Dan drives the last leg of our trip to Austin - 166 miles left!!  We left White Sands Monument, NM this morning and made a beeline to Austin.  After 4 days of winter camping we're ready for a hotel.  I think last night is what broke us...it was well below freezing and, at one point Dan and I were both up in the middle of the night when I asked what time it was - sadly it was only 230am and we still had at least four and a half hours of a dark chill until sunrise.  Regardless, I'm glad we stopped in White Sands and camped the night - we hiked a mile into our "primitive backcountry camp site" which is just a bunch of gypsum dunes - the biggest gypsum deposit in the world!!  It looked like snow and a handful of other tourists were sledding down the dunes having a great time.  In the morning we were not only greeted by frozen water bottles and hannah's frozen water dish, but also a bit of a puzzle!  We were in search of Hannah's backpack in which she carried her ration of water, food, and blankets for the night (she was a trooper as you can see from the pic link below).  We searched the backpacks and came up empty - but then Dan found the backpack about 20 feet away from camp in a clump of grass.  From what we can gather, a kit fox (not many other large animals could drag a five pound pack all that far) carried Hannah's pack - either because it had her scent on it, and/or the scent of the doggie biscuit I hid in the inner pocket!  We also found a small part of the bungee cord snapped in two after being chewed up!  Sadly this is the closest we've gotten to any wildlife during this trip aside from the various roadkill (sad).

Anyhow, working backwards, we spent the night before at the City of Rocks, NM - it was AWESOME!  The campsite area seems pretty new - there is a large group of boulders in the middle of nowhere (volcanic activity) in NM and the state put a campground right in the middle.  It's got windmill-powered water wells, that provided us with HOT showers (our first in a few days!!).  It was pretty sparsely populated so we had the pick of the litter - we chose campsite #11 (named Ursa Major) which was a short walk-in site up on a hill and afforded us a great view of the area and access to lots of boulders to play on - even Hannah managed to climb up a few to watch the sunset and sip on a few tasty beverages we picked up from the Beverage Palace in Globe, AZ (as an aside - the Bev Palace is open at 8am in the morning - perfect for roadtrippers driving through!).

Right now we are finishing up the most boring part of the drive only 144 miles - TX does not afford much in the way of scenery, thankfully we just found an old-timey country station - 93.5FM that has kept us entertained with cowboy stories and songs about Johnny Walker (and not just the whiskey brand!) - ya-hoo!!  Also glad that the speed limit in this part of TX is 80mph!!  It makes our 670 mile drive a bit faster...La Quinta Inn in Austin-Oltorf here we come for two whole nights!!  Very excited to not be in the car for a day, and depending on how we feel we may do a straight shot to home...

Oops!!  Sine typing this blog posting and actually posting, a slight change in plans!  Dan and I drove through Fredricksburg, Tx which is 80 miles west of Austin.  We stopped for some gas and then drove through downtown - it is ADORABLE!  It reminds us of Leavenworth, WA - a Bavarian-themed town with Christmas lights EVERYWHERE.  All it needs is some snow!  Anyhow, we found a cheap Super 8 room so we decided to stay here the night and had dinner at the Fredricksburg Brewery (great beer!) and we're now resting at the hotel nicely showered and ready for our first night of warm sleep since we started this trip - the TV is pretty great as well!!

Pictures here, and captions on the last picture album finally up as well..

xoxo!!

Hellos from the road!!

Happy New Year to All!!

I'm currently typing from an adorable little coffee shop in Globe, AZ called Vida e Cafe.  I've already fallen in love with it due to its clean bathroom, breakfast sammies, free wifi, AND a new drink that I am in love with - a horchata with soy milk, and a shot of espresso...YUM!!!

Thus far Dan, HAnnah and I have had lots of fun.  We left the LBC Saturday morning and headed to Joshua Tree.  We found one of the last camp sites at the Jumbo Rocks campsite - apparently we are not the only ones with the idea of camping out in the desert for NEw YEars!!  It was so neat to be around the hugeola boulders!  We were out by 830pm, but were kept awake by reveling campers, and then, a little after midnight a helicopter continually swept the campsite searching for something...we're still trying to find out what was up with that, but it sounded like an ambulance was in the area...odd..

anyhow, last night we spent the night in AZ just out of Phoenix in the Tonto Wilderness Area at Oak Flat campground.  Today we're headed to New Mexico to spend the night at the City of Rocks State Park and hopefully boulder some.  We'll see!!

hope all is well with you, here are some photos!  A little out of order, but pics from the road trip thus far, and some exploits in the LBC with Dan and the fam and Hannah...No time for captions, gotta hit the road!!

xoxoxoxo